Sega Looking to Bring Back Older Franchises

Next Generation has a interesting piece about how Sega is looking to bring on Western (US, etc) developers to create next-gen game titles using their older, somewhat forgotten franchises.

This means that we may see some game on the PS3, Revolution, and XBox 360 featuring not only Sonic the Hedgehog but, Virtua Fighter, Afterburner and House of the Dead. In fact these titles already have some work behind them.

Although they were not mentioned in the article, I’m sure there are talks about other series like Nights Into Dreams, Comix Zone, Panzer Dragoon, and other cult favorites.

While talk of these games gets me excited, the most interesting part of the article for me was when Sega executives admited that they have basically been slacking since they have become software-only.

Sega of America President and COO, Simon Jeffery stated:

“We emerged from not being a hardware company to being a software company with a lot of flamboyance but then maybe didn’t quite live up to expectation. We didn’t really plan out our platform strategy widely enough.”

He says rivals lack Sega’s creative edge. “A lot of the leading game companies are almost becoming packaged goods companies – they are driven by licenses and sequels. We see a great opportunity for Sega to be building original games. We have a fantastic portfolio of IP that we can update and contemporize, rather than just trying to build our company around movie licenses or sports franchises.”

I have been concerned about Sega as of late because they have not been creating fresh titles lately that show off their creative capabilities that we grew to love in the 16-bit and 32-bit eras. Now it looks like they have woken up and see what need to be done to bring them back to the top of their game.

Yeah, go SEGA. I would love to see SEGA become second party for Nintendo, just imagine a revival of games like NIGHTS, Jet Set Radio, Panzer Dragoon and Sonic on the Nintendo Wii, the awesomeness would be off the scale i tell ye.